Those lenders now account for 34.5 per cent of all personal loans in Australia.

Given non-bank lenders only held 25.5 per cent of that market in 2009, their growth has been explosive. This is largely due to the introduction of 24-hour online application services, the development of loan "apps" that can be downloaded to your phone, and to intensive television and social media marketing.

The latest growth spurt has, in part, been an unnecessary and unintended consequence of the banking royal commission which forced the big four banks to ramp up compliance with their "responsible lending" codes of conduct.

It is much harder to walk into a bank branch and negotiate an unsecured personal loan for a car or a holiday now than it was 12 to 18 months ago.

The upside is banks are no longer writing loans for customers who may not be able to repay.

The downside is despite legislation intended to crackdown on payday lenders - including limiting their ability to lend to people who would not have the capacity to repay - being introduced into the parliament by now Nationals leader Michael McCormack in October 2017, nothing has happened.

While the wolves have had to clean up their act, the sharks are still circling.

The government allowed the original bill, itself drafted in response to a Senate inquiry in 2016, to lapse and has since blocked numerous attempts to revive it.

The latest attempt to get the reforms through was in a private members bill moved by Labor MHR, Madeline King, on Monday.

A key provision of the proposed legislation was a ban on any loan in which the proposed repayments would be more than 10 per cent of the customer's income.

Ms King was highly critical of the Coalition's failure to act on reforms it had previously supported in her speech on Monday. She noted that numerous excuses had been put forward for failing to act over the years including the need to wait on the outcome of the banking royal commission.

The matter is set to come to a head when parliament resumes for the budget session in May following yesterday's release of yet another Senate inquiry report.

And, according to social workers at the coal face who are dealing with families in crisis as a result of blown out loans with interest rates of up to 48 per cent, the reforms just can't come fast enough.

"What we've seen in recent years is the market expanded to be more mainstream, we've seen some very savvy marketing that targets the younger demographic, particularly younger males," Katherine Tempy from the Consumer Action Law Centre in Melbourne said.

"What we've seen from this industry time and time again is they will exploit loopholes wherever they exist, and they will move into the least regulated area."

There is little point in requiring the major banks to lend responsibly unless simultaneous action is taken to ensure the non-bank lenders do the same.